


Memento

by JohnAmendAll



Category: Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: Community: dw_straybunnies, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-03
Updated: 2012-01-03
Packaged: 2017-11-23 20:34:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,091
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/626259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JohnAmendAll/pseuds/JohnAmendAll
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shou Yuing renews her acquaintance with Ace, and hears the story of one particular relic.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Memento

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the [dw-straybunnies](dw-straybunnies.livejournal.com) [Twelve Prompts of Christmas](http://dw-straybunnies.livejournal.com/35395.html). Prompt 1, "Ace/Girl of the week"

"Great to see you again, Ace," Shou Yuing said, gazing around the office with undisguised interest. "So, this is where you work?" 

"That's right." Ace leaned back in her battered but comfortable chair, causing its front two feet to part company with the ground. "You know what?" 

"What?" 

"No-one's called me 'Ace' for years. Except you." 

"Really? What do they call you?" 

"'Boss', mostly. 'Director', if they're being formal. Probably 'that bossy cow' behind my back." 

"I still can't believe it. You, running a charity." 

"Yeah, that's a long story. Not like you." 

"I know what you mean." Shou Yuing giggled. "Demolition contractor. Blowing stuff up for money. Sort of a dream job, isn't it?" 

"You sound like you're enjoying it, anyway." 

"Most of the time. And it keeps the kids fed." 

"Kids?" Ace repeated. Intellectually, she realised how many years had passed since their last meeting, but each reminder still gave her a jolt. 

"Afraid so." Shou Yuing gave her a sympathetic look, obviously following her train of thought. "Where does all the time go?" 

"Ask the Professor. If you can find him." 

"Yeah, he'd know. Don't suppose he'd tell you." Shou Yuing took a gulp of tea, and gave the office another look. "Ace... what's that?" 

"That's what everyone says, first time they see it," Ace said, a grim note entering her voice. 

Shou Yuing set her mug down, rose to her feet, and walked over to the filing cabinet that had attracted her attention. On top of it, just about at eye level, was the head of a young woman, made of stone, and mounted on a wooden base. Her expression was hard to pin down: looking from different angles, Shou Yuing thought she could make out guilt, or love, or pleading. 

"And do you tell them?" she asked, her own voice equally serious. 

"Not as a rule." Ace left her own chair and joined Shou Yuing at the cabinet. "But I'll tell you. If you really want to know." 

"OK." 

Ace reached behind the stone head and manipulated a catch. There was a _click_ , and she lifted it off the plinth. "Here," she said. "See what you make of it, bonekicker." 

Shou Yuing took the head, not without an inward shiver. Apart from some scratches and dings around the neck, where it had presumably broken off from the statue it belonged to, the head was in good condition. The detail was superb: the sculptor had carved each and every lock of hair, eyebrows, even a suggestion of eyelashes. The eyes seemed to be made of a slightly paler marble, their irises and pupils darker. 

If it was solid marble, or granite, it felt a bit on the light side, though. Gently, as if it was one of the historical relics she'd handled back in her student days, she turned the head over in her hands and looked at the snapped-off neck. Yes, it wasn't completely solid. There were holes, two of them, just where a person's windpipe and oesophagus would be. And in the pattern in the stone around them, she could make out what could almost be bones and blood vessels and nerves... 

She nearly dropped the head, but managed to hand it back safely. 

"Ace," she said, her voice nearly a whisper. "Ace, this used to be someone, didn't it?" 

"I knew you were bright." Ace returned the head to its plinth. "Her name was Gwendoline." 

"What happened?" 

Ace looked down at the head. "It wasn't her fault," she said slowly. "She was just a kid. Only it turned out there was an alien spaceship under her house, and the aliens got her." 

"They did this to her?" 

"Not at first. That only happened when the Professor and me turned up. Two years later." She gently touched the stone hair. "She was pretty crazy by then, but you could still see what she used to be like. I wanted to--" She broke off, a catch in her voice. 

"You all right?" 

"Doesn't matter," Ace lied. "It probably wouldn't have worked out anyway." She took a deep breath. "Anyway, she died. That was all the Professor would tell me, then." 

"So when did you find out?" 

"A few years ago. I was trying to sort out a load of alien vegetables in Edmonton -- long story -- and I ended up in this old bloke's house. Some sort of collector." She nodded at the stone head. "He had that on top of a bookcase, and, well, I recognised her. Gwendoline. No wonder the Professor wouldn't tell me what happened to her." She turned away from the head, as if unable to meet its sightless gaze. "I expect the rest of her ended up in a skip in 1983 after the fire. That was my fault, too." 

They stood in awkward silence for a few moments. 

"Ace," Shou Yuing began hesitantly. "Why do you keep it-- her-- in your office? I mean, wouldn't it be better if..." 

"If I buried her properly?" Ace shook her head. "I'd still keep thinking about her. And at least this way she's there to remind me of a couple of things." 

"Of what?" 

"A lot of my work's to do with kids. Getting them out of trouble, sorting their heads out. And she's there all the time, to remind what could happen to them if I screw up. That's one thing. And the other one..." 

"Yeah?" 

"The first night we met, we were in her room together. I nearly kissed her. I reckon she'd have been up for it." She shrugged. "It didn't happen. I thought I'd have another chance later, maybe even get her to come with us in the TARDIS. I never got that chance." 

"So the moral is, if you're curious about what it would be like to kiss someone, kiss them?" 

"Pretty much." Ace met Shou Yuing's steady gaze, and found herself, however reluctantly, smiling. "Hang on. What are you up to? We've kissed before, so that isn't it." 

"There's more interesting things than kissing. We could do some of them." 

"What, here?" 

Shou Yuing giggled again. "Hey, you run this place. So you make the rules, don't you?" 

"This is the stupidest idea ever." Ace kissed her, and felt the familiar thrill run through her body. "OK. I'm sold." 

"Let's do it on your desk." 

"Why not?... Just a mo." Ace hurried across to where Gwendoline's head still stood on the filing cabinet, and turned it to face the wall. "Wouldn't want to make her jealous, would we?" 


End file.
